Simpl layoffs: Over 150 jobs cut, CEO apologizes to employees in town hall

Simpl layoffs: The company, which previously employed around 650 people, has seen its workforce fall by roughly 25% in the past few months.

Fintech company Simpl reportedly laid off almost 160-170 employees across various departments as the company faces high monthly cash burn and slowing user acquisition. Moneycontrol reported that the job cuts are impacting a range of roles across the company and the most impacted ones are the higher-paying positions in engineering and product development.

Simpl layoffs: The job cuts are impacting a range of roles across the company and the most impacted ones are the higher-paying positions. (Freepik)

The company, which previously employed around 650 people, has seen its workforce fall by roughly 25% in the past few months as employees in core operations, interns, call center agents and D2C checkout vertical have been reportedly let go.

What Simpl CEO Nityanand Sharma told employees in town hall

Citing a source in the know, Moneycontrol reported that the company held a brief town hall on May 8. The source said as per the outlet, “Founder and CEO Nityanand Sharma had a brief all-hands townhall with employees today at 9 am. It seemed he was reading out of a prepared script. He said we are sorry to let go people and will do our best to help with stuff like outplacement.”

What Simpl said on layoffs and will there be more job cuts

As per the report, Simple said that the layoffs were a strategic move to improve operational efficiency and achieve profitability. Through this process, the company aims to streamline operations and reduce fixed and overhead costs as well as focus on restructuring.

The company told Hindustan Times, "As an organisation committed to creating a shared value for our merchants, and millions of customers across the country, we have undertaken a series of measures to improve operational efficiencies, reduce fixed and overhead costs, along with taking the difficult decision of letting go of some of our talented employees. These efforts are enabling us to accelerate our journey towards profitability and build a fiscally prudent organisation. We have laid out a comprehensive growth plan while having a razor sharp focus on profitability in order to advance our mission of enabling e-commerce and Direct-to-Customer merchants to provide enhanced convenience to their customers".

What about Simpl layoffs in 2023

The company let go of some employees in March 2023 as well and reportedly hired new staff in the intervening period.